Correction 1941 Gutka : murabbaa / marlaj

[Guest guest]

Respected Sirs,

 

There are three Hindi transliterations of the 1941 gutka available

in the market : Pt. Yograj Prabhakar's , Pt. LK Vashishtha's and the

Arun Sanhita .

 

In all these three :

on page 111 line # 11 [ Pt. Yograj ji's gutka ]

on page 49 line # 11 [ Pt LK Vashishtha's gutka]

on page 56 line # 11 [ Arun Sanhita gutka]

 

The line reads:

 

" hont baajoo ya munh ka dahaanaa, haath murabba hota hai "

 

In the original urdu edition of 1941 page 111 line #11 the word in

place of `murabba' is `marlaj'. It is definitely not `murabba'.

 

The same line appears in the 1942 urdu edition on page 160 line # 3.

There again the word is `marlaj'

 

In common parlance, in west UP, this word `marlaj' means loose or

limp `dheela-dhala'. At times this word is used to describe a

paralyzed part of the body, `dheela-dhala such that it appears dead

or bejaan, maraa hua'.

 

The word `marlaj' makes sense if read along with the previous line:

 

" Shani ke ghar ye raja cheetah, mard magar nahi maartaa hai "

" hont baajoo ya munh ka dahaanaa, haath marlaj hota hai "

 

` ……. It doesn't kill the man but lips, arm, mouth, hand could be

marlaj or limp'

 

I would love to hear if the word means any differently in Punjab.

 

Regards,

 

Varun Trivedi